Cloud and SaaS Dependency is Skyrocketing. Data Security Has to Keep Up

Where work now lives in APAC

Across Asia, organizations have standardized their daily work on SaaS (productivity suites, collaboration, CRM/ERP, and BI/AI) while modernizing their workloads in the public cloud. Below are some statistics that support this:

• Cloud spend in the APAC regions is projected to rise at 2% CAGR to US$471.2 billion by 2028, propelled by AI and digital infrastructure – IDC, 2025.
• SaaS market revenue will grow from $8.6 billion in 2024 to $20 billion by 2030 at a 3% CAGR. – Grand View Horizon, 2024.

So what? The result is unprecedented data sprawl across tenants, apps, partners, and endpoints. Cloud and SaaS dependency multiplies where sensitive data lives and how it moves. Perimeter controls alone can’t keep up.

 

Country snapshots: where dependency (and risk) is compounding

Singapore

SaaS-first and cross-border operations are the norm for regional HQs. Financial institutions align with MAS TRM (Technology Risk Management Guidelines published by the Monetary Authority of Singapore), which expect robust third-party governance – even when workloads sit with cloud providers. At the same time, PDPA’s Transfer Limitation Obligation means outbound data must meet adequacy/contractual safeguards. In practice, broad sharing creates leftover links and external access across multiple tenants. After download, files are exposed, and providing control during audits becomes difficult.

 

Malaysia

Cloud/SaaS dependency is accelerating under the MyDIGITAL Initiative and Cloud-First Policy, while compliance teams answer to Bank Negara Malaysia’s Risk Management in Technology (RMiT) and a tightened PDPA. The friction point: excessive privileges often move with migrated apps, producing uneven permissions across Government-Linked Companies, shared-services hubs, and vendors. When regulated data spreads across SaaS drives and analytic exports, boards expect evidence of who has access and how files are used – not just CSP configs.

 

Indonesia

Digital-first sectors (e-commerce, fintech, ride-sharing) rely on partner networks and outsource operations, so sensitive data regularly crosses organizational boundaries. The PDP Law (Law No. 27/2022) became fully enforceable in Oct 2024 and requires breach notice and guardrails on cross-border transfers. Meanwhile, OJK – Indonesian Financial Services Authority – regulations mandate strict oversight of IT outsourcing for financial institutions. Exports and offline copies made for field ops or partner handoffs can outpace formal controls, and accountability gets blurred once files leave the originating tenant.

 

Vietnam

Rapid cloud and SaaS uptake spans electronics manufacturing, outsourcing, and fintech. Decree 13 on data protection and Law on Data / Decree 53 introduce data localization for certain services. Projects often keep hybrid storage (local file servers + cloud drives), spawning duplicate versions with inconsistent permissions. Sensitive BOMs, CAD, and KYC artifacts spread across projects and vendors, making lineage and access evidence difficult during regulatory queries.

 

The recurring APAC risk pattern

1. Orphaned and unmapped data

Files proliferate across SaaS drives, object stores, desktops, and BI exports. Security teams can’t reliably enumerate the footprint, let alone the access posture.

2. Config drift across multi-cloud and many SaaS apps

Different consoles and permission models create over-broad access, public links, and orphaned accounts, which are problems that scale with every new repository. The growth trajectory of cloud spend in APAC reflects that rising complexity.

3. Controls stopped at the environment boundary

Cloud-native tools protect the place (tenant, VPC, instance). But when a file is downloaded, exported, emailed, or shared with a vendor, protection often doesn’t travel with it.

Bottom line: In a cloud and SaaS world, risk follows the data, not the perimeter.

 

A data-centric strategy that matches APAC reality

See and understand posture – Fasoo DSPM

For the control to follow the data in a cloud and SaaS operating model, Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) must kick in. Fasoo DSPM takes a data-first approach that gives continuous visibility across on-prem, cloud, and SaaS environments. The monitoring solution provides:

• Automated discovery & classification across various environments with real-time insights into where data is stored, who has access, and how it’s used.
• Continuous monitoring & risk assessment via a centralized dashboard, including analysis of access controls and repository vulnerabilities.
• Comprehensive data-flow visualization that maps movement across multi-cloud and hybrid environments, including cloud, local storage, and file servers.
• Granular policy settings aligned to CSPs, compliance requirements, and access controls with simplified compliance management with GDPR, CCPA, PCI DSS, and local privacy laws.

 

Keep control after download – Fasoo Enterprise DRM

For protection to follow the file beyond cloud and SaaS, Enterprise DRM must take over. Fasoo Enterprise DRM (FED) applies persistent, file-level encryption and policy so security stays with the data, whether it’s saved on endpoints, downloaded from cloud apps, or shared externally. The encryption provides:

• Persistent protection that travels with the file regardless of where they are stored or shared.
• Granular access control (e.g., view, edit, print, copy & paste, decrypt, etc.) tied to users, groups, or online status to grant only authorized permission to the right users.
• Full audit trail, logging all document usage activities of who accessed what, when, where, and whether the action was a success or failure.

 

See the data. Control the file.

APAC’s business engine now runs on cloud and SaaS. That dependency delivers speed, but it also spreads sensitive files across tenants, apps, partners, and endpoints where perimeter controls can’t reach. The practical answer is data-centric security: see the data and its risk posture everywhere it lives and keep control of the file as it moves.

If your teams are scaling projects across APAC regions, make this your next step: baseline what sensitive data you have and where it flows with Fasoo DSPM, apply persistent controls to the files that matters most with Fasoo Enterprise DRM. You will then move with APAC speed without losing control.